Material from the television program Caprica is NOT automatically considered canon, although players may adopt individual bits and pieces from what's depicted on Caprica into the regional cultural background of their character(s). When in doubt, please ask.

To avoid contradictions in established RP, a policy of "localization" has been adopted. Apart from the Staff-written Overview and items firmly established in the main BSG series, there should be no all-encompassing tidbits for any of the Twelve Colonies. Players are wholeheartedly encouraged to create regional write-ups. Those seeking to deviate from the general "flavor" of the Overview should first consult with Staff.

Overview

Often called the breadbasket of the Twelve Colonies, Aerilon is an agricultural world with little in the way of heavy industry or large cities. It's also one of the poorest worlds in the Colonies, and as a result its people are stereotyped — often unfairly — as low-class uneducated bumpkins. Unsurprisingly, Aerilonians tend to describe themselves in slightly different terms: in their minds, they are a honest and hard-working people with simple needs and frugal character, unafraid to get their hands dirty in cities or fields. They are highly represented in the Colonial Fleet, particularly among the CMC's enlisted personnel, in large part because the military offers enterprising young Aerilonians an easy way to get off the farmstead and see new things.

OOC Note: For the sake of consistency, "Aerilon" has been adopted as the official spelling of this Colony's name (per Battlestar Wiki).

Places and Regions

Players are encouraged to add their own write-ups. If you'd like to add something to a region already listed, please speak with the player who created the region.

Details established in RP would suggest that the culture and geography of Aerilon is largely based on a mixture of the highlands of Northern England/Scotland, the small towns of the prairies of the American Midwest, and U.S. tobacco country. Northern Aerilon is also home to the scratchy, guttural accent as demonstrated by Dr. Baltar in Dirty Hands.

Northern Hemisphere

Tarnock

Tarnock is a small town just north of the Tannerman Ocean on Aerilon's northern continent. The Tannerman is Aerilon's largest single body of water, though the tall, rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean in the vicinity of Tarnock means that little in the way of port facilities have developed there. Tarnock is more sleepy college/farming town than anything else; although the ocean cliffs and a local colonial park do a decent job of bringing tourists and their money to the town, the local economy owes far more to agriculture and the presence of the most prestigious of Aerilon's few colleges, Colchis University (more specifically, the influx of Colchis students who bring along with them their parents' money to spend). As such, although you'll find the same mix of farmers and laborers on the outskirts of Tarnock as you would in any other small town on the planet, the city center is a more affluent place than one would find in most small towns on the colony; natives therefore tend to be just a little more cosmopolitan than the Aerilon stereotype. (Not much, though. The locals can still throw a barn party with the best of them.)

During Aerilon's days of prohibition, many farmers in the area turned to home distillation rather than bootlegging or homebrewing. Before the attack on the colonies, the most renowned moonshiner in the vicinity of Tarnock was a canny old farmer named Ivan Laskaris.

Tarnock is relatively isolated; a major highway (A10) does run along the ocean and through the town, but the only other human settlements within 50 miles are the slightly smaller towns of Deronda, Stovall, and Ryker's Aerie. Most of the surrounding landscape consists of prairie and stretches of rolling hills, though the nearby Tarham Colonial Park holds a fairly substantial swath of forests as well as what passes for mountains in the area. There is(was) also a small training camp for the Colonial Fleet located adjacent to the park; Camp Alfa conducted all-weather training for would-be pilots in the Fleet, and probably explains why the region received the attention it did when the Cylons executed their attack.

Southern Hemisphere

Allegheny

Named after the river that runs through it, Allegheny is a province located on the southern continent that is most famous for two things: (1) the exceptional tobacco that is unique to the region; and (2) the Blue Ridge Mountains (not to be confused with the Blue Mountains on the Isle of Langley in northern Aerilon), so named for their bluish color when seen from a distance. The natives tend to favor Demeter, and snake handling is a common religious practice.

Thales

Meaning blossom in ancient Kobol, the province of Thales is one of Aerilon's earliest settlements. Located to the southeast of Allegheny, it is home of the Antheian Mountain Range, so named after Antheia, a non-Olympian goddess of flowers. Even from afar, there is no mistaking the reason for this: as far as the eye can see, the region is a sweet-smelling swathe of lavender fields, wild violets, lilac, and flax. So exquisite are these florae, they are purchased and utilized by the most elite perfume houses of Virgon. Although the natives do produce their own delightful fragranced oils and lotions, those items are not the region's claim to fame.

Thalesian linen is reputed to be the finest in all the Twelve Colonies, hand-woven with techniques that the locals maintain are those imparted by Athena herself aeons ago on Kobol. Additionally, few places rival the province's fabric dyes; and when it comes to shades of lavender, violet, and lilac, nothing comes close to those of Thales. Unsurprisingly, there also are strong herbalism and apothecary traditions.

For the most part, primary and secondary education in Thales cover reading, writing, and arithmetic in both Colonial Standard and the regional dialect. The Humanities are strongly covered, including all manner of myth and lore, ancient and regional history, arts, music, philosophy, and so forth. Earth sciences and chemistry are heuristically taught and primarily pertain to agriculture, dye-making, herbalism, and other related disciplines. These 'general education' requirements aside, the set-up is very much akin to a vocational school, which means far less book learning and theory than other places in the Twelve Colonies in exchange for practical work skills that are cultivated from a very young age.

As far as real world equivalents go, Thales is pretty much a hodgepodge of accents and cultural idiosyncrasies from the (U.S.) South. This very much includes iced tea, which is considered something of an abomination in other parts of Aerilon. Thalesians (pronounced tha-LEE-zee-uns) tend to amiably touch others when they converse, address people by first name prefaced by the gender-appropriate title of Mister or Miss regardless of a person's age or social standing, and use terms of endearment such as "hon" and "shug" (for sugar) even with people they hardly know. Porch gatherings, community barbecues, and quilting circles are ways of life.

Cultural Details

The people of Aerilon are stereotyped as staid and traditional, but that stereotype does not include the ritualistic/superstitious bent that typifies Gemenese and Sagittaron culture. (For example, arranged marriages are extremely uncommon here.)

College education is rare; it's uncommon enough to find people with a community college class or three under their belts outside the major cities, much less an actual degree-holding professional. Because of the labor-intensive nature of agriculture and the relatively poor economic conditions, most young people in rural areas like Tarnock that don't or can't go in search of higher education stay at home and either work their family's land or hire themselves out as laborers on other people's land. Those residents that do achieve a college degree tend to, like Lasher, get the hell out.

Pyramid is a favored pastime of the farmers and workers of northern Aerilon; nearly all the locals are fans of the Aerilon Avengers, and blue, red, and gold (the team's colors) are popular all over the planet. The rivalry between the Avengers and the Leonis Lions is something that most Aerilonians take extremely seriously. (Think Cubs-Cardinals, baseball fans.)

Aerilon isn't the most religious of the Colonies, but Artemis, Demeter, and Hera all have devoted followings here.

Tea, not coffee, is the hot morning beverage of choice in the region.

Many of the crops on Aerilon, especially in the northern provinces, tended towards root vegetables and potatoes — able to survive difficult winters and grow plentiful over the years.

The culture of the planet has developed slightly more on its own for being so poor — music and dancing are a large part of entertainment in the Aerilon communities. The fiddle tends to be a prime instrument of choice.

In some of the northern provinces, Castor and Pollux have gained a large following of the religious community. Agricultural deities, the brothers have been said to warn when the harvests will fail or give blessings to the turn of the seasons.

Woad is popularly used on Aerilon for religious tattooing and cultural entertainment. Some contribute the heavy use of woad to the visions that Aerilon's oracles often profess.